The Seed She Chose

After my hundredth disastrous blind date, my best friend and I made a bold decision: we would have children without husbands.

She chose sperm from a brilliant PhD donor.

I chose a donor with an eight-nation mixed heritage.

Later, the PhD donor from Kingsford University was diagnosed with low sperm motility and decided he wanted to marry my friend, Melissa Shaw. She agreed.

Whenever she saw me going to my prenatal checkups alone, Melissa would wrap her arm around her husband and mock me.

"You're destined to be alone," she sneered. "You can't even find a man to marry you. My husband just launched a major national research project. His future is limitless."

What she did not know was that the father of my child was the Prince of Dubaria. He took me back to his country and made me his princess. The jewels I wore were so heavy they practically weighed me down.

However, after she saw the yacht I posted on social media, Melissa suddenly called me in tears.

"I don't know what happened," she sobbed. "My husband's project was suddenly suspended. We can barely afford baby formula for our child."

She said she wanted to make up and even asked if I would be her child’s godmother.

However, the moment I stepped through her door, she raised a chainsaw and hacked me to death.

"Why do you get to live a better life than me?" she screamed. "Just because you chose better sperm?!"

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my best friend and I first decided to have children without husbands.

"Laura, who needs marriage! Let's head to the sperm bank and be the heroines of our own stories!"

My best friend Melissa Shaw was shaking me with excitement.

As I looked around the familiar lab, I suddenly realized that I had been reborn.

After a string of weird blind dates, Melissa and I had decided to pick some top-notch sperm at a private clinic for IVF.

Melissa's voice buzzed in my ear like a bee as she urged me, "Laura, look. There's a PhD holder from Kingsford University here. If you choose his sperm, the kid will definitely be super smart. Go for that one!"

Then, without waiting, she pointed to another profile showing the mixed-race sperm options: "I prefer this sperm from the man of eight national lineages. Laura, you better not go after the same one as me!"

Right then, I knew that she must have been reborn too. She was in a hurry to grab the prince's genes for herself.

Melissa pretended to be looking out for me: "This PhD holder has amazing genes. If you pass him up, you'll regret it."

Her pitch was totally different from our previous life. I looked at her and gave a slow nod.

The second I nodded, Melissa's eyes sparkled, and she got all worked up.

"Just don't come crying to me later!"

What would I regret? I wondered.

She was so eager for me to choose the sperm of Jay Lowell from Kingsford University because she had her sights set on becoming a princess in Dubaria and living a fairytale life.

Back in our previous life, she had chosen Jay's sperm first, wanting a genius baby.

However, when Jay ended up with a low sperm count, he turned to her, and they got married.

At their wedding, I showed up, pregnant and ready to celebrate, but she shut me out coldly.

Back then, Melissa strutted around like a peacock, her eyes full of scorn as she looked me up and down, and then she let out a mocking laugh.

"You're still dreaming like a little kid. I'm about to live the high life because of my kid!

"My husband's been picked to lead a big space project for the nation! And you? At best, you're carrying a fetus of eight national lineages, and at worst, just a mutt. Who even knows what kind of bloodline that child will have?”

However, what I did not see coming was a shiny gold invitation that arrived a month after the wedding.

A super tall butler, almost six feet two, handed it to me himself and said, "Beautiful lady, the prince knows about the baby you're carrying. He wants to whisk you away to Dubaria to tie the knot!"

That was when it hit me. The sperm I had chosen belonged to a prince from Dubaria.

Once I was off to Dubaria, Melissa started to spill all her troubles to anyone who would listen online.

She ranted about a female PhD holder who did not know her place, trying to charm her husband.

She posted pictures and videos of herself spying on the lab every single day.

Then she bragged about how she had given that PhD holder a piece of her mind, and the other woman did not even fight back because Melissa was pregnant. Melissa thought that gave her the upper hand.

As it turned out, Melissa's tantrums tanked the whole space project, but she did not feel the slightest bit sorry. Instead, she blamed her husband for not being good enough.

Their constant fights became the talk of the town among our friends.

Eventually, with Melissa's temper being so well-known, no one wanted to work with Jay, leaving him jobless for ages.

When the baby came, money was tight.

With Jay out of work and Melissa never one to pitch in, they fought all the time. Jay started staying out late, night after night.

I was always showing off to my friends with pictures of royal parties, fancy cruises, and the huge diamond ring on my finger.

As such, when we got a do-over, she did not think twice about picking the prince's sperm and told me to pick Jay's.

I acted clueless and asked, "However, it’s a mix from eight national lineages. What if the mix isn't great?"

Melissa had already signed the papers and cut me off sharply, "That's not your problem. My son will be a royal heir, but your kid might not even have enough for baby formula!"

I just laughed to myself.

Anyone with half a brain would know who to choose: a promising PhD from Kingsford University with a genius son, or that aggressive father-and-son duo who resorted to violence at the drop of a hat.

I wonder if Melissa could still smile if she were stuck in a room with a lioness!